I Didn't Know
by ABalletBun
Summary: How can a women not know she's pregnant? What happens when Shane and Claire become parents?
1. Chapter 1

**This story is dedicated to clairebear97, who's an awesome person and she requested this story, too! This is set in Fall Of Night by the way. So Claire and Shane are in Boston, but Claire still doesn't know that Shane is there yet.**

I walked into my apartment in Boston and threw my purse and keys onto the miniture table next to it. I noticed that the spot where Liz usually put her keys was empty, so obviously she wasn't home. Probably slutting it up with some professor somewhere. That was a little cruel, but I really didn't care. I was in a lot of pain, as I had been all day.

It was 11:30pm and I had another 6:00am start tomorrow, so it was probably too late to get a bath but I trudged upstairs and ran myself one anyway. While I was waiting, I swung open the bathroom cabinet forcefully and scoured through it for some ibruprofen or some kind of pain killers.

The bath was almost full now, so I poured in some bubble bath and lavendar to (hopefully) soothe my aching back before juming in. It was hot at first, but nothing I couldnt handle, especially compared to the pain that was burning through my back and stomach.

I was only in the water for about 10 minutes when a sharp, stabbing pain radiated through my stomach. I gasped, repressing a scream and lunged forwards in pain. After a minute or two, the pain down and I started to cry. _What was wrong with me?_

I got out of the bath and pulled a towel round me. I'd barely picked up my phone when the pain hit me again. That's when I remembered Shane's words: "_when you need me, I'll be on your doorstep faster than you can imagine". _

I don't what I expected Shane to do, he was halfaway across the country in Morganville and I was here, in Boston. I guess that I just had an instinct deep down, to ring him. I grabbed my iphone and furiously dialed him, begging for him to pick up straight away. He did.

"Claire?" he mumbled groggily.

"Shane..." I cried hysterically down the phone.

"Claire," I heard him snap awake, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," I mumbled, still crying. Then the pain hit again and I let out a small scream, "What's wrong with me?"

"Claire, listen. Don't freak out but I'm in Boston." That made me quiet. I wanted to be angry that he followed me, but it could wait.

"Please help me," I whispered and burst into tears again.

"I'll be there in 5 minutes, okay?" He told me.

"Okay..." I cried and put the phone down. I steadied myself onto my feet and used the wall to guide me as I threw on my pyjamas and managed to get downstairs to wait for Shane.

After less than 5 minutes, he knocked on the door. I knew it was him, because he used his signature knock. He was sweaty and breathing heavily, he must have ran here, but I'd never been so happy to see him! I wrapped my arms around him.

"Claire are you okay?"

"I don't know" I answered honestly, just as the stomach pain hit again, this time it brought me too my knees. Shane held onto me as I fell, supporting most of my weight. I screamed slightly through gritted teeth. Shane looked how I felt: _terrified._

"I have to take you to a hospital." He clarified, grabbing Liz's car keys and sliding his arms under me. He carried me to Liz's car and put me in the passenger's seat before sliding into the driver's seat.

Once again, the pain subsided slightly. Not fully, like the other times, but enought to allow me to breathe. Shane was holding my hand and driving with the other.

"Just breathe Claire, It'll help" he said and the pain hit again (_damnit), "_What's going on?"

"I don't know" I screamed.

"Shh, it's okay." He spoke soothingly, pushing my hair behind my ears as he stopped at the traffic lights.

As we arrived in A and E, there were nurses already waiting for me. Some time whilst driving, Shane must have alerted them that we were comng in, although I don't remember. They put me in a wheelchair and rushed me up to a room where they plugged wires into every inch of my body and a doctor asked me every question I could imagine. Was I pregnant? Was I drunk? Was I a drug addict? Did I fall over or something crazy like that? Yadda yadda yadda. Obviously, I answered no to all of them.

The doctors were rushing around trying to get answers while the pain kept hitting me like a hunshot over and over again. Shane didn't leave my side once during the whole debacle.

That's when the final pain hit, this time it didn't go away.

The doctor from before rushed in, followed by a parade of nurses carrying all kinds of equiptment. Shane and I looked at each other, both us were completely confused.

"What's going on?" I whispered to him.

"You're 7 and a half months pregnant" the doctor interrupted, "and you're in labour"

My heart stopped. _I was pregnant? _No, I couldn't be. I'd never been sick and my cycle had been completely regular! There was no way. But then when I thought about the pain I'd been having, it made sense that I was in labour.

I looked over at Shane who looked even more scared than I thought was possible. We'd fought vampires, Bishop, the draug, Captain Obvious and all sorts but I'd never seen him more scared than this. I could see him mentally doing the maths, as he realised that he was going to be a father.

Most people had 9 months to prepare for a baby. Shane and I had less than 5 minutes to get ready as the nurse told me to push.


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter will most likely be extremely short. Its pretty action-packed, so I hope you guys don't feel like you're missing anything! Also, I have three science GCSE exams next week so I've been revising so much as well as writing 4 stories! Oh well, wish me luck!**

"No." I told the nurse, "I'm not pregnant."

"I'm afraid that you are, sweetie. You're going to be a mom today"

"But..." I started, but the excuriating pain hit me before I could finish.

"Push Claire" the nurse told me. I did, but only out of curiousity, I didn' t believe I was pregnant. I couldn't be, everything had been so... _Normal. _Up until now, I'd never had any symptoms at all.

Oh God. If it was true. If this was really happening and I actually _was _pregnant then what would the effects on the baby be? I was fighting draug and captain obvious whilst I was pregnant. That can't be healthy for him/her.

I looked over at Shane, he looked as though he could keel over or faint or something. In fact, I'm surprised that he didn't. If it hadn't of been for the pain that I was in, I would have probably passed out myself. I guess it must have been hard for him; last week, I wouldn't give him the time of day and this week, I was in labour and we were about to become parents.

_Parents, _it seemed surreal.

Oh crap. What about my own parents? My beloved Mom and Dad sprung to mind. They hated Shane as it was, how would they deal when they find out that he had gotten their only daughter pregnant at 18? Would they disown the baby and I?

"On the count of 10... Push." The nurse announced.

I did. It felt almost... Natural? Like it was what I was supposed to do? We went through this pattern of counting to 10 and pushing for a while before eventually, I felt the baby come out.

"It's a girl." She announced over the scream of a newborn.

I looked over at the baby. She was beautiful. 10 fingers, 10 toes. Amazing.

"She weighs 4 pound, 2 ounces and her time of birth is 22 minutes past 12 am. Congratulations."

They put her on my chest and my arms automatically went around her without being told. Mother's instinct, I call it. The baby, (who didn't have a name yet) was tiny, even for a baby and she had puffy dark brown hair with dark eyes. One of the midwifes wrapped the baby up and took her presumably to a nursery. The only thing spoiling the moment was the searing pain that continued to continued to tear through me.

"There's a second one!" I heard the nurse scream.

A second one? Did that mean what I thought it meant? Was I having twins? By the reactions of the medical staff around me, that seemed to be the case.

"Claire," The same nurse that delivered my daughter told me, "We need you too push again, harder this time... The baby is stuck"

_Again? _I thought before realilising how selfish that was. I was tired and barely managing to stay concious and they were expecting me to push out another baby? I don't know how I managed it, but I must have because a second later, the nurse was holding a second baby in her arms.

Everything was different this time, I didn't get too see the baby at all before they whisked him or her away. No crying, just the echoing sound of silence as the nurse unwrapped the chord from the baby's neck.

"Why isn't he cyring?" I asked Shane, grippng his hand. Shane had calmed down a bit now, and even though I'd always been the 'steady one' (to use Eve's words), Shane looked a thousand times better than I probably did.

"I don't know," He replied, trying to peer over at where the nurses were holding our baby.

It seemed like hours, dragging by but in reality, it was a few seconds before we heard the baby crying. It a short, swete cry, filled with weakness and pain but it was a cry nonetheless. Our baby was alive. Tears began to pour from my eyes as they whisked the baby away.

"You have a son." The nurse told me, "He weighs 3 pounds, 1 ounce so he's pretty tiny."

I barely heard her as the world my hearing went fuzzy. My eyes were blury and the world was spinning. I felt like throwing up and I could barely see anything.

"Claire?" The nurse called out to me, waving a hand gently in front of my face, "Oh god." she cried as I felt the world disappear...

**Sorry for the cliffhanger but you know... ;) Hope you guys liked it!**


	3. Chapter 3

Shane's POV-

I watched in horror as Claire heart machine thing went flat. The nurse screamed for help, "She crashing!". A team of doctors raced into the room and pushed. I didn't fight, I was still too shocked to fight.

"We need to intubate her!" One of them called to the other, before the door slammd shut and I was evicted to the waiting room.

I slumped down in a chair, with my head in my hands. A passing doctor helping a patient gave me a sympathetic look. I looked over at the plain white door in front of me. What if Claire didn't make it? What would I tell her parents, or Michael and Eve?

_No_, I scolded myself, _she's going to be fine_.

I tried to think of something nicer, so I thought of my babies. I had a son and a daughter now, how trippy was that? One of each. I thought about my daughter's beautiful brown hair and my son's gorgeous eyes. I never thought I'd be able to love something as much as I loved them.

I texted Eve and Michael, telling them to come to Boston as quick as they could, that it ws really important. They text back about 5 minutes later, asking millions of questions but assuring me that they were getting on the next plane.

I had been so caught up in my thoughts that I hadn't noticed a doctor sliding down into the chair next to me.

"You're with Claire Danvers?" he asked.

"Is she going to be-" I asked immediatly.

"I think we should do this in a more private setting, do you not agree?" The doctor cut me off, nodding his head towards the other people who were sitting around the waiting room. They were pretending to be engrossed in some magazines but it was obvious that they were lsitening to everything that the doctor was saying to me.

I nodded in agreement and followed the doctor down a set of corridoors and into a stuffy little room painted white but filled with posters. There was a sofa with fluffy cushions. That worried me. If there's one thing that I've learrnt about hospitals, it's that they don't give you the good stuff unless they're about to tell you something bad.

We took seats oppisite each other and the worn-down doctor began straight away, "We've diagnosed Claire with eclampsia which is a life-threatening condition which leads to extremely high blood pressure."

I swallowed, "Is she okay?"

"Miss Danvers is alive, although she is in a coma." The doctor explained as my heart sank, "There's no telling when she will wake up."

I felt tears prick my eyes. I wanted to be strong, for Claire and the twins but I really couldn't. If I didn't have Claire, then I wouldn't be able to cope. Claire and I were co-existing, we needed to other to breathe properly. The doctor picked up on this and gave me a friendly pat on the back.

He leaned towards me and whispered, "Okay. I'm not really supposed to tell you this, but I personally think that Claire will be able to make a full recovery if she is given plenty of rest."

I took a deep breath in and managed to get out, "What about the twins?"

"Both babies are underweight, but that could probably be expected from premature twins with eclampsia. Baby B, the boy, had some respitory problems at first, but is recovery well. Our main focus now is making sure that they gain weight and no further problems appear. I think the most important thing for the babies is that you and Claire are well taken care of. With that being said, I recommend that you go home and get some rest. You look exhausted"

I was exhausted. As soon as I got to my apartment, I dropped straight away. I didn't sleep well, haunted with dreams of Claire dying and the twins hating me for not having a mother. In my dreams, everything was flying away from me. The apartment was crowded and fithy and my friends and Claire's parents were laughing at me, unwilling to help.

As soon as I woke up,I went straight to the hospital. I'd gotten a text from Eve letting me know that her and Michael were on their way out. There was a smily face on the end of her text. If she knew what trouble we were in, she wouldn't have even thought of putting a smily face.

Everything seemed quieter today and calmer now that I'd had some sleep. The doctor was right, a long sleep made me regain some hope and think clearly and calmly (an act which was definitly not my forte).

I went straight up to Claire's room and sat by her bed holding her hand. I mumbled things to her, like 'wake up Claire' and 'you're children need you'. Realising that nothing was happening, I put my head on her bed and prayed to a God if there even was one out there.

I was pulled back into reality by a shaking sensation. Instinctivly, I reached for my phone, assuming that Michael or Eve must be calling me too tell me that they were off the plane. When,I got my phone, however, it was blank. No missed calls and only text was from a sales company offering some kind of discount on some crap I didn't care about.

"Shane..." I heard a raspy voice mumble. My head flew up as I realised what the moving must have been. Claire! She was staring right at me, obviously awake. She coughed a bit and frowned, she started crying.

"Claire," I gasped, naturally appearing at her side, "What's wrong?"

"I can't see anything!" She cried.

**I know, I know. I'm cruel ;) Hope you liked it anyway! **


	4. Chapter 4

**This is a bit of an anti-climax filler kind of chapter but it leads to the next chapter where Eve and Michael will be back! Yay!I tried to write this quicker but my cat constantly sits on the keyboard and thinks he owns the place (sad excuse)**

Claire's POV-

I freaked out.

"Can you see this?" Shane asked frantically, holding out his hand.

"A little, it's like blobs not anything really specific." I explained, taking a deep breath.

A nurse came in, acting as if it was nothing and I had only woken up from a nap, "That happens sometimes, don't panic!" She turned to me, "Do you remember anything?"

I did. I remember being in pain, I remember callng Shane, I remember being told I was in labour. I _definitly _remembered having the babies. I remember being scared for the youngest's life. I remember the relief when he finally cried. Then I remember feeling sick and passing out. I told this to the nurse and she was impressed.

"That's a good sign."

"What happened?" I asked, my eyesight clearing up a little now.

"You were in a coma, sweetheart." A coma? That sounded really serious. What was wrong with me?

"What about the babies?" I asked, not really caring anymore about myself. I wanted to know if they were okay.

"Underweight and a little underdeveloped but generally okay."

I sighed and looked down, "How didn't I know?"

"It happens sometimes. If a person is under great amounts of stress or they have pre-exisiting medical conditions, the symptoms of pregnancy can be ignored by the body. If a person's cycle is already irregular then they might be okay with missing a month or two. Also, it seems as though you didn't gain much weight, especially considering how small the babies are, so that could be a factor. Don't berate yourself, it happens more than you might think."

The nurse checked my blood pressure, it was still slightly high but not so high that it was dangerous. After she left, a social worker came in too see me and Shane. They asked if we wanted to keep the babies, we said yes. They asked if we had any support and Shane told them that Eve and Michael would be here within an hour or two.

They got me walking around the room, which was agony considering I had just pushed two babies out. I managed though, with the thought of getting better so I could be the best mother I could be too mine and Shane's babies.

After I while, I got settled back into the bed and Shane relaxed in the chair next too it, I smiled over at him and said, "I can't wait to see the twins properly,"

"I know, we'll be able to soon." He replied, grabbing my hand and squeezing it, "What are we going to call them?"

That made me think. Once, Shane and I had spoke about calling our daughter if we ever had one, Carrie Alyssa. Since then, I had grown out of the name Carrie, but I still loved the idea of Alyssa as the middle name. I wanted some femine but pretty, short but sweet.

"I don't know? How about Summer?" I asked.

"Ugh, no. I hate that name" He retailliated

"It's lovely. How can you hate it?"

"It's cheesy." He said with a smile, "What about Hope or Faith? You know, because they were born early?"

"That's so cliche!" I gasped, "No way."

"Grace?" Shane suggested.

"Grace." I repeated, rolling the name over my tounge, testing it, it was a nice name, at least. Short, but sweet. We could nickname her Gracie or Amazing Grace,

"Grace Alyssa Collins?"

"Grace Ayssa Collins." I confirmed.

"And the boy?" Shane asked. I paused. I'd had a million names for a girl but none for a boy.

"Middle name could be Michael?" I put out.

"Sure, and what can the first name be?" Shane asked, clearly wanting to get a name idea in. I could tell by the cheeky smile on his face that he had an idea.

"Do you have any?"

"Noah." He said firmly, "Noah Michael Collins?"

I nodded, suddenly feeling tired. My eyes were hurting to keep them open and everything was kind of blury anyway. I felt Shane run his hand over my head, telling me to get some sleep if I was tired. So I did, drifting off to dreams of Grace Alyssa and Noah Michael.


	5. Chapter 5

Shane POV-

My heart was pounding as I drove to the airport to pick up Eve and Michael. I knew they were going to be worried when I told them that Claire was in hospital and they would probably ask a million questions and I would have to try and explain that Claire had twins without even knowing she was pregnant.

I met them, just outside. Eve was scowling her eyebrows at me and Michael had a look of fear in his voice. They only had one suitcase and Michael was more than capable of carrying it so I left him to it, and led them both to the car. Eve got in the front, Michael got in the back, leaning between the front two seats.

"What's going on?" Eve started, "Why did we have to come all the way down here on such short notice. Do you even know how hard it was to pack all my stuff and get down to the airport in about-"

"Claire's in the hospital," I told her abruptly.

"W-what?" Eve asked, "Why?"

Michael looked at Eve, clearly shocked. I guess they'd thought that we'd eloped or done something crazy. They weren't far wrong, of course, but still. It's _lovely _to know they trust us.

"What's she done, Shane?" Michael asked, his voice hard.

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you."

"Just tell us," Michael said sharply, then his voice went softer, "Was it a vamp?"

I chuckled, "Not a vamp, far from it. Okay, she had twins."

There was silence, Eve looked at Michael with confusion written all over her face. Michael's was the same, except with a tint of anger, he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Claire was pregnant, and she had twins early Tuesday morning."

"She didn't look pregnant?" Eve replied.

"Have you ever seen that TV show where women don't know they're pregnant?" I asked, Eve answered yes, Michael answered no, "Well it's like that. If I had to blame something, I'd blame the stress of Morganville."

There was silence for a few moments before Eve said harshly, "I'm the godmother right?"

"Well, we haven't really spoke about-"

She turned to Michael, smiling, "I'm sooo the godmother."

Claire POV-

I woke a few hours later to find Shane staring at me from above. I almost screamed, but I managed to recognize him before that.

"How's your eyesight?"

"Almost better," It wasn't a lie. I could see basically everything now that I'd had a rest, giving it some time. There were a few fuzzy spots but all in all, it was okay.

"Awesome," Shane smiled, "Michael and Eve is here. I picked them up while you were sleeping. We're all going to go see the babies, Eve's out of her mind in excitment"

I didn't bother to correct his grammar as he took my arm and supported me. I straightened myself out a bit, feeling grubby but not really caring. He led me down a few corridoors until we got to the NICU. Eve and Michael were waiting outside. Michael took over from Shane in supporting me, since he was stronger and Eve gave me a really tight hug but nothing else. She was jumping all over place, more excited to see the babies more than me.

I didn't mind. I'd realised as soon as the twins were born that they would always come before me from now on. I'd never really seen them yet and already, I know that I'd give my life to either of them. I'd be happy if no one ever cared about me ever again as long as they were happy and healthy.

The NICU was really quiet. For a nursery, you'd expect crying or something but there was barely any noise at all. A couple of families held their babies and a few nurses whispered to each other but generally, it was almost silent. Shane led me to a room, it was pretty light and open with two plastic cribs in the centre. I sanitized my hands and walked over to them, peering inside. I felt like a little child looking at them in such wonder.

_My_ daughter, and _my _son.

Little Grace coughed and I felt a geniune smile fill my face. She was tiny, even compared to most babies. Then Noah was even tinier than her. It was crazy. Eve and Michael were looking over at the babies too, I heard Eve whispering too Michael about how small and cute they were. Then I heard something was a black dress and a baby mohawk for Noah and zoned out. Shane wrapped his arms around my waist.

"We did good, huh?" Shane whispered.

"You did." Michael called over, "As much as I don't like the thought of you two being parents, espeially since Claire is not even 19 yet, they are adorable."

"I know," Shane smiled and Michael hugged him. Eve looked over at me and rolled her eyes, mouthing '_guys'. _I giggled a bit at her.

"So..." Eve started, "Any names yet?"

"Erm, yeah, we picked them last night," I told her.

"Ooooh, tell." Eve said, bouncing on her toes. I nodded over at Shane.

"Okay. This," he gestured at Grace, "is Grace Alyssa Collins and this," he gestured over at Noah, "is Noah Michael Collins."

Michael looked taken aback, "Michael?"

"Yeah," Shane said and looked down, "After you, man. Figured you'd be okay with that."

Michael smiled and looked down at Noah with uncle-y look about him. Eve span round to look at me and Shane now, "I love those names, their so cute!"

I nodded as nurse came into the room...

**I'm actually so sorry for not updating. I had 5 mock exams in 3 days :/ Oh well, there all done now and I'm only in school for 3 days next week then I have a week off so I'll probably update **_**a lot **_**more. I also have ideas for a Clyrnin fanfiction so if you like Clyrnin then keep looking and I'll probably update some time next week :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm so sorry, I got writers block and changed the whole story plot. Hope you enjoy, and once again, sorry for the long wait.**

It wasn't until 4 days later that Claire was released from hospital. As soon as Grace hit 5 pounds, she was released too with a clean bill of health but the hospital staff thought it would be best not to move her until baby Noah was healthy too. Finally, two weeks after their birth, both babies were allowed to go home.

Shane and Claire felt blessed, too say the least. With the babies being twins _and _premature, they had both been expecting a lot of health issues, but with the expection of low birth weights, they were fine. Claire was almost perfectly healthy now, too. She was preparing to get back into her studies. Everything was great for them.

It was almost _too good_.

The past two weeks had been extremely hectic. Amelie gave them all permission to stay in Boston for up too a year, unless told otherwise. Michael and Eve had managed to find apartments next door to Claire and Shane, which was perfect since the younger couple had two kids now and Michael and Eve were married. It gave both couples privacy but allowed Eve and Michael to help out with the babies.

"How do we know which one is best?" Claire asked while holding a car seat upside down, trying to find some sort of clue as too which seat to buy. All 4 of the Glass House gang were in Babies R Us, trying to find some sort of baby furniture. They had managed to get two cribs and a double pram. Michael and Eve were taking care of diapers and formula and other basics.

"Don't know," Shane mumbled sheepishly, bowing his head a little. Honestly, he had no idea about any of this baby stuff. Like when they got fed or when they slept. He picked out their coming home outfits - a leopard print onesie for Grace and a blue puppy one for Noah - but that was about it.

The thought of bringing them home was terrifying for him. Maybe it sounded awful to think, but he almost didn't want them to leave the hospital. Obviously, he was so happy that they were both healthy, but the thought of him and Claire being left alone and having to actually parent two babies was the scariest thing he'd ever done. And he'd defintley done some scary stuff in the past.

Soon enough, they had bought everything they needed. Michael and Eve offered to set them up in the apartment and Claire and Shane had gratefully accepted. They were so busy lately and Shane was never that good at assembling furniture anyway (not that he'd admit it, of course). So they drove to the hospital to get the twins.

They handed over boxes of chocolates and cards as thank you's to the amazing nurses who had helped get Claire _and _the babies back to health. They were delighted and they exchanged goodbyes. The nurses, who had been like friends the past few weeks had grown quite attached to Noah and Grace and were sad to see them go. However, they knew that never having to see a child again was a sign that they were good at their job.

Claire loaded Noah into his car seat while Shane fumbled around with Grace. They were unexperienced so it took them a while, but they did eventually get them both in and drive away. Claire was in the passenger seat and Shane drove as slowly as possible on a busy Boston road. It earned them a few angry honks and fingers from passing cars. Still, it didn't faze Shane one bit.

"I have precious cargo," he'd told Claire when she'd gently told him that he could drive _a bit _faster and it wouldn't hurt them, "I don't want to risk anything,"

As soon as they walked through the front door, Eve took Noah and entertained him. He followed her hands as she played peek a boo and Shane fussed with Grace. They all fell into their roles as parents and Aunt/Uncle quickly and easily. So far, it had been blissful and simple. It was only when the babies woke up at 1am for a feed that reality hit.

They were parents. They weren't just Shane and Claire anymore, they were Grace and Noah's parents. They were unprepared to say the least, but they adapted quickly. They started taking it in turns to sleep. Shane would change Noah while Claire fed Grace and vice versa. Sometimes they were confident with their parenting, but most of the time, they had no idea what to do next.

One thing they did know, however; life starts now.

**On that note, I'm just going to let you know what happens next. I might leave the story here, or I might write a sequel when the twins are 3-4 years old. You decide!**


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